The Speaker for the Dead
by Commander E. Wiggin
Summary: Amidst the reign of terror enclosed on the Animals, a powerful voice rose. The Speaker for the Dead orates about true dark nature of the Wizard of Oz, and the Wizard was determined to see this brazen anonymous writer rotting behind bars. But who is the Speaker?
1. I - The Speaker

**A/N: **First things first, _Wicked _obviously belongs to Gregory Maguire, and the title _The Speaker for the Dead _was already used by the author Orson Scott Card.

Take it easy on the commenting section, aye? This is the first fanfic I'm posting.

* * *

><p><strong>~ I ~<strong>

**THE SPEAKER**

"Is there a progress, Madame?"

"Your Ozness, we've been _trying_. It was just impossible to know where all these horrid notes are coming from at this stage—"

"Which is why it is critical! If the public get's a hold of this—"

"Sire, it's beginning to spread like an unharnessed conflagration at Quadling Country. The folks there read it like it's a doctrine sent from above. Or from below. No one really knows who the author is."

"Madame, we're running out of time. We need to act before these so-called doctrines corrupt every single Ozian into turning against us. We need to know who this Speaker is."

* * *

><p>There was a new regulation at Shiz that morning.<p>

In fact, every single class had been suspended in lieu for a surprise inspection.

What galled everyone was that the school administrators wanted to check every single reading material they have, from private diaries to their assigned textbooks. All were to be brought to their assigned queues in a bag. No one understood what the teachers wanted from them. They were provided with no explanation. As such, they were all muttering and whining among themselves at the long lines they were forced to stand on for hours.

Galinda had been in the line roughly about two and a half hours now. At first, she and her small group of friends decided to fall in line once the crowd dissipates, but the longer they put off that chance, more and more people would line up to get the ordeal over with. They were left with no alternative but to stand there and frown, carrying their heavy bags with them.

"What's all the fuss about?"

Galinda and her friends turn to look at the intruder. Their annoyance began to rekindle anew.

Galinda was the one who found her voice amidst the fog of anger. "Of all people, weren't _you_ supposed to know what this is about, Miss Elphaba?"

"Of all people, _you _were the last one I was expecting to see in an arrangement such as this, Miss Galinda," was Elphaba's answer, allowing herself to grin as she stood outside the queue, hands behind her back.

Galinda resisted the urge to pummel her ever so obnoxious roommate. It was tempting, seeing as she held a heavy bag full of useless textbooks. After all, Elphaba loved books. Perhaps she wouldn't mind having one or two of them against that smug grin of hers. "Why are you not in line, then? It's mandatory, you idiot."

"Unlike every other imbecile, I got in line an hour before the inspections began, Miss Galinda. The question of who the idiot is in this situation seems self explanatory, then. Now, if you'll excuse me. I need the comforting silence of the library."

As Elphaba left, Pfanee turned to Galinda and muttered darkly, "Is is too much to hope for that the library just burns down and take her with it?"

Elphaba heard it. Perhaps they meant for her to hear it. Not did she care. If the library _did_ burn down one day, Elphaba would return to this moment and have someone ready to blame for the incident. The thought made her smile, and she was in good spirits as she headed to the Great Library.

Her jovial mood was immediately dampened when she saw that it was closed. A notice was placed across its doors:

CLOSED FOR INSPECTION.

NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC ACCESS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

"They're getting desperate."

Elphaba didn't turn around; she knew the voice well enough. Her eyes remained glued to the notice as if it had committed a mortal sin against her. In fact, it did. This simple piece of wood was hampering her from her safe haven.

She sighed as she turned to her only source of solace now. "The students knew nothing about the Book yet. And they knew this. That's why they're conducting an inspection. They needed to make sure Shiz is still under their control."

"Wrong. The students are beginning to know the existence of the Book. Three students of Quadling origin were apprehended and sent to Morrible's office earlier," Doctor Dillamond answered. "They knew the Book's been gaining an audience. They needed to act."

"To cut off the threat even before it begins, I know," Elphaba answered.

Doctor Dillamond looked at her for a while, a fatherly gesture Elphaba had come to know, love, and appreciate. "Are you afraid, my child?" His callous voice somehow sounded soft, somehow seemed gentle for an Animal.

"I'm not. But _he_ is. And he should be. That was just the introduction."

* * *

><p>Camaraderie at school seemed like a rare occurrence. But the tighter the old ones held them by the neck, the stronger the young ones resisted.<p>

The teachers began to exhibit odd behaviours such as suddenly halting a group of students to look at the books and notebooks they were carrying. At the cafeteria, they would sit close to students, listening at their conversations, watching like sentinels. Hours spent at town were limited, and curfews were enforced. This had caused an uproar from the student body, only to be quelled when Morrible further decreased their liberty of gallivanting at the town by one more hour to prove her point.

Shiz was slowly morphing into a twisted military school, and no one was liking it. Speculations began to wander from student to student. They began to piece the facts together, and by and by, they worked as a whole body to find out what was happening to their school. They worked in the dark, and as such, darkness had bound them all together as they searched for enlightenment.

"Hey, have you heard?" Shenshen whispered as she came back with her tray. The food, they were all thankful for, was still pristine and appetising despite the disturbing changes.

"Keep your voice down," Pfanee muttered, glancing at one of the nearest professors two tables away from them.

"I know, you ninny. One of those girls from Quadling Country was expelled."

"Another one? What do they have against Quadling folk?"

"I heard it was a because of a book or something."

"Oh, will you keep up, Shenshen? Everyone knew that this is all because of some stupid book _ages_ ago."

"Fine, fine, but get this. A senior student helping out in the teacher's office saw the book."

"Get out."

"I'm serious. Only he can't remember the exact title. Horrible Morrible snatched it right then and there once they discovered it in the girl's bag. He thought he saw the author's name, though. Something about a singer? Seeker? Snitcher?"

Pfanee snorted derisively. "That sounds like a petty thing to get us all in this stupid situation. What do you think, Galinda?"

"I'm thinking this is all nonsense, and we're getting ourselves into trouble talking about this... _Singer_," Galinda answered, ducking her head low as a teacher walked by.

They agreed not to mention anything about the matter for now.

Galinda had a separate class from Pfanee and Shenshen, and opted to leave early to get there in time, seeing as her assigned room was way away. On the way out of the cafeteria, she found herself caught in an impasse.

"Get out of my way, artichoke. I don't have time for you… like, _ever_."

"Miss Galinda, I would like you to practice caution from here on out."

Galinda grimaced at her and scoffed impatiently, "What are you on about now? I'm late for my next class."

"That compares to nothing should the teachers catch you gossiping about private affairs again."

Galinda felt blood drain from her face. "What do you mean?"

"You know very well what I mean. Little detectives and inspectors in this university get caught up in trouble, do you know that? If you know what's best for you and your friends, you better leave everything the way they already are."

From being numb and cold, Galinda felt her veins surge with the heat of anger. How dare she? How dare she threat her? Galinda was not to forget that Elphaba was a particular favourite of the professors; exceedingly bright, highly participative in classes, and she was just an excellent student that no one could deny that. If there was anyone who was going to tip the teachers regarding trouble makers at school, it would be her.

The teachers were not the only enemies now, it seems. There would be traitors like Elphaba in their midst. She had never been associated with any student anyway. That would make sense. Elphaba would turn anyone in to the teachers for "extra credit". She was probably doing it right now. She must've condemned many lives in her allegiance with the faculty.

"I'll remember that," Galinda said quietly, anger dancing in her eyes as she held Elphaba's cold gaze for a few moments before rushing past her. As she hurried away, she could feel Elphaba's eyes trained on her. She shuddered, not in disgust as she usually did in their room, but in fear.

* * *

><p>They were tasked to read again for the whole duration of the period. Surprise, surprise.<p>

Galinda did what she does best during Theories of Personality: nothing.

The book was open on her desk, but she had been on the same page for the last fifteen minutes or so, still trying to grasp the first sentence she saw over and over again. The professor had been moving around, going between isles, tapping a nodding head here and there. When he finally left for a restroom break, the fun begins.

Two or three of the boys began jokes in the back, and everyone simply went along. Everyone simply got along so well for the past month or so without really working it out first. They simply clicked together, like lost siblings in a reunion.

In fact, in their little playtime, they began to make use of paper as ammunition to pitch at each other. Others even grab the recycle bin and make use of the stuff there.

Galinda decided not to join the fun, no matter how invigorating it looked. Even though she didn't want to admit it, she was still shaken with her encounter with Elphaba earlier. She had to watch her back now, and stay clear form Elphaba as much as possible beyond the walls of their shared dorm room. If Elphaba was indeed in league with Morrible's sickening regime, then Galinda and her friends had just inadvertently landed themselves in her watch list. She knew Elphaba hated her, and she's proud to say that the feeling was mutual ever since the day she laid eyes on her, and she knew that it would only motivate Elphaba further into condemn her to the professors—

A crumpled ball of paper had collided with her forehead.

Annoyed, but still refusing to join the fray, she conditioned herself to calm down by opening every paper that landed on her desk. The predicament with Elphaba will have to be dealt sometime later. For now, she needed to calm down. She unraveled paper after paper, shooting them as accurately as she could at the bin in the corner.

_this class suck ha ha ha _(Galinda's face grew warm at the obscene sketch at the bottom of the page)

She hastily threw it away.

_Clemelda, i know you don__'__t like me. i wish you would notice me. my heart is only for you._

Galinda decided to pocket it and slip it into the girl's locker later, and then leave her to worry for her mysterious cheesy admirer.

_The history of biology traces the study of the living world from ancient to modern times. Although the concept of biology as a single coherent field arose in the__—_

Galinda chucked it away before she fell asleep.

The fourth one landed neatly on top of the open book at her desk. It was badly crumpled and torn at the corners that Galinda wondered how long it had been sitting there at the bin. She began to think twice whether she would read the abject garbage or not. As she read it, however, she was glad she didn't simply dispose it. It seemed like the very first page of a book. By the time she was finished with it, she wondered madly where the rest of it was.

_I am the Speaker for the Dead. I tell the truth when I speak, and I do not keep away from other people__'__s secrets. You know him as the Wizard, and he loved everything and everyone. But I knew him as the Architect of Misery, and he destroyed and slaughtered. He had built his kingdom over the civilisation he had torn asunder. Hear me now, Seeker, as I speak for the lives he had scorned, for the souls he had damned._

She read it several times, her eyes going wider and wider at every repetition. Before she could completely comprehend what the short text truly meant, the professor stepped in the room again. If the page she held in her hands is what she thought it was, then she would rather not be caught with it. As the professor began to viciously sermon the class, Galinda crumpled the page in the earnest, let it drop on the ground, and heftily kicked it aside, not caring where it went.

Within several minutes, the class went back in session. Pretty much everyone helped in disposing the papers. Galinda hoped and prayed that someone didn't take interest in the moldy page. She would find it again. She _have _to find it again.

She can't get the page out of her mind. She felt tainted as she recalled what it had said—

"W-Where did you get that?" came the professor's voice somewhere from the back.

Everyone was saved from their stupor, and they turned on their seats to see the commotion progressing behind them. Galinda knew what it was about. Not wanting to appear guilty, she, too, hesitantly turned around.

The professor was standing next to a frightened boy's desk, looking absolutely terrified.

"I asked you a question. Where did you get that?" the professor's voice shook.

"I… I just found it, I mean— It's just lying around—"

"_Lying around_?"

"Sir! Sir— ow!"

The boy was suddenly being dragged from his chair by the professor, who had a wild, hysterical look in his eyes. He grabbed the whole book off the boy's desk, heading towards the door. "Class dismissed!" he called before he and the sobbing boy disappeared into the hallway, the boy's desperate pleads ringing viciously in Galinda's ears.

* * *

><p>"A boy was in the office today, Elphaba. Poor child. Morrible was livid. She didn't believe him when he said he only found the excerpt on the floor. Someone had been utterly careless enough to throw a piece of it in a recycling bin."<p>

"Ah. What did our headmistress do?"

"Sent the boy to somewhere unknown. Tomorrow, they plan to announce his expulsion to disguise the whole thing. To the students, they'll say he's been sent home. To the parents, they'll say nothing. Poor, poor child…"

"… Should we stop writing for a while?"

"No. He's rattled. So is Morrible. I say we keep pushing the stone off the hill."

"No matter the lives it cost, Doctor?"

"It is _for_ them, Elphaba. For the others who suffered before, and for those who are yet to suffer under the Wizard's tightening grasp."

* * *

><p>It was her fault. But was it? Would there had been another way to avoid it?<p>

Galinda's head was mired in deep thought as she automatically made her way back to the dormitory. The whole affair wasn't so trivial after all. It was a conspiracy against the Wizard and those who supported him. And the way to every Ozian wasn't through an oration that will immediately get the culprit shot on stages. The means of these rebels were through a book. And it frightened Galinda to no end that she had actually read an excerpt of this book. She couldn't imagine what it would be like had she been caught with it.

She didn't know what to feel. Now that she knew a tinge of what was happening, she couldn't simply confide it with anyone. If she had told someone untrustworthy enough, then it would spread like wildfire. And when it was out in the open, all fingers will point to her. And yet keeping it to herself made her anxious, made her feel as if someone was always watching her and waiting for her to blurt out the dire secret before enclosing her to a trap.

It was maddening. And to boot, distracting. In fact, she didn't seem to take notice of the sounds of another person walking in the corner.

They were both walking so fast, neither really seemed to be paying attention either, and they barrelled against each other, the tremendous force knocking them both to the ground.

"You know, I've always doubted your brain capacity. I never realised the discrepancy extended all the way to your visual capabilities."

Galinda almost groaned in frustration. "Amusing notion, Miss Elphaba," she muttered as she struggled to gather her things.

Elphaba did the same. "You idiot. I had my lab papers arranged already!"

"Too bad, then."

Muttering angrily to herself, Elphaba looked around one last time to make sure that she didn't miss anything before walking away to the direction of the laboratories.

Galinda glowered menacingly at her retreating figure before she took time to arrange the various paraphernalia in her arms. One of them, she noticed, was not hers. It was a singular page she had mistaken to be part of her unfastened reflection paper for one of her classes. When she read it, however, she felt the same numbing and dizzying sensation she experienced in her recent class.

_For he doesn't acknowledge compassion. For he piteously lack the benevolence of a true leader and a father. They seek redemption and he gave them damnation. So, if he asks for mercy, it is only just to retaliate with the fury of demons._

_- The Speaker for the Dead_

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Ah, yes. There's a lot of copyright forgone in this fanfiction. I may or may not be open for suggestions for this one. This thing only has a beginning and its ending. Retarded of me, right? Perhaps we could talk this over tea or coffee sometime?


	2. II - The Witness

**~ II ~**

**THE WITNESS**

* * *

><p>The biology laboratory was submerged in the early winter air. The sun was almost gone, and with it, its light and warmth. It always got colder after that, seeing as the biting winds were not challenged by any form of heat.<p>

In the dim, orange gleam of the lamps, Elphaba sat quietly in a corner, mute and despondent for the last hour. If anyone asks, she was there "for extracurricular activities". Doctor Dillamond, meanwhile, was in the teacher's desk, looking up from "work" every now and then at his student, only to see that she hadn't so much as flinch every time he laid eyes on her rigid figure. Even at class today, she was deathly silent. Her classmates, on the other hand, found it amusing and surmised that, for once in her life, Miss Know-It-All had forgotten to read an assigned chapter.

They were doing their "project" again, and Elphaba hasn't come over to his desk to discuss anything with him. She was as silent as the grave. It even looks as though she wasn't doing anything at all, just sitting there, eyes glazed with a serious expression set on her face.

"Something on your mind, child?" he inquired from where he sat across the room, seeing that only half an hour remained before their "session" ends.

"No." The reply was clipped. A darker ambience further enveloped Elphaba's features as she turned away from the lamp nearby.

"You were never good at lying, child. Keeping secrets, maybe. You would rather keep your silence than say something that could probably save your life."

"Or end it. I don't want to have my own words used against me. One little slip up and it spirals downward from there. Better to shut it, better leave them to assume, to guess, if I know the truth or not."

"A tactical play of psychology, but it's not always effective," the Goat parried, rising from his desk to approach her, wanting to keep the rest of their ensuing conversation in hushed tones. "Sometimes silence could mean that you're guilty of something, that you're guarding something away from everyone. Now, tell me, what's troubling you?"

Elphaba almost smiled. Almost. If the situation wasn't so dire, she would have remembered to find little joys in little things. He knew her better than her own father would've done. And she loved him better than she would have loved her own parents. "Parents" was even a strong word for her; more like the people who tolerated her and raised her, but that was about it.

And as such, she couldn't possibly lie to him. "One of my pages is missing," she began softly, gauging his reaction as she looked up at him.

His furry brow furrowed slightly. "So you haven't found the page you were looking for yesterday?"

"I haven't. I nearly flipped my whole desk over, and still, nothing."

"What was it about anyway? What did it contain?"

"It was the last page of my letter to the Vinkus rebels…" She looked at him dead in the eyes as she said, "The one signed with our pseudonym…"

The room was further submerged into a freezing degree, it seems.

"How did that happen?" he asked in a low tone.

"It was some stupid accident, really. It would have been avoided if I was paying attention to what was happening around me. It was all so stupid…"

Doctor Dillamond wasn't angry, no. He ought to be, but he wasn't. He could never be mad at her. He was terribly anxious, yes, that Elphaba had potentially damaged their little operation this early. And from his intense anxiousness, fear inevitably manifested. Not for his life, but for Elphaba's.

And he could see it, too, so livid in her eyes as she looked at him like a lost child. Regardless of her uncanny skin condition ("birth defect", as she'd called it), she was still very much human, and as such, she was subjected to pain and fear. And he could see it. She was hopelessly terrified. Now that she managed to blurt out her secret to her only ally in a sea of hostility, he could see her steely resolve melt, and its place was a fear so fervid that it was almost palpable.

"Do you have any idea where it is?" he asked quietly, seeing how erratic she was breathing, her panic rising fast before him.

"Upland. Upland has it. I just know it," she said in a small voice, fixing her eyes on the floor, "I saw the way she looked at me this morning. Upland maybe dense, but she's not dense enough to let this one slide."

"Is she aware of the Speaker or the Book's existence?"

"I've heard her and her friends talk in the cafeteria before. Everyone's starting to figure out what's happening., but none of them really had the concrete idea as to what it specifically is. But _Upland has the page_. And she knew it was mine. She knew I wrote it. The look on her face this morning, I just— She _knows_."

He knew what was setting her off.

Galinda Upland wasn't exactly known for her silence. In fact, if Shiz had a hierarchy of social interaction, Galinda would be one of the reigning monarchs. The girl had a natural charm and charisma that Elphaba never had to be able to fit in a social circle.

"There's still some chance to get ourselves out of this, Elphaba," the Doctor said gently, seeing how shaken Elphaba already was. "She hasn't told anyone about it yet. If she found the page odd, that is."

"You're not involved _yet_, Doctor, according to her perspective," Elphaba said quietly, "As far as I know, if she knew who the Speaker was, she would just assume it's me. She got it from me. And how can you be so sure?"

"Because by now, you would have been rotting in a cell at Southstairs." He saw her hands fiddle her threadbare skirt restlessly. It was probably not the ideal thing to say. "Look, Elphaba, child, you have to be in good terms with her."

Still not looking at him, Elphaba's face morphed from agitation to a glare in a heartbeat. "Perish the thought. It was established, from the very beginning, that we're _ never _going to get along. Even if I steal the page back, it would mean nothing. She could still hold the fact against me even without the evidence because she knew what the page held. She knew it would make sense only to the teachers. And I just know that she could sell me out anytime, seeing as we're not exactly feeling that camaraderie roommates are supposed to feel towards each other."

"Which is why I suggest you get along with her, convince her that you're her ally, if not her friend. Give her a reason to protect you, to safeguard our secret. Elphaba, child, I know that I'm asking too much from you as it is, and as much as we both don't want to admit it, Miss Upland is holding us by the neck."

* * *

><p>It was alarming how Galinda knew that her self-exiled roommate was out of her wits.<p>

Elphaba returned last night agitated, almost to the point of burning her closet and desk in search of something. And Galinda had a very good idea what the green woman was looking for, and it was giving her a strange satisfaction in watching her rummage around like a typhoon. But in the end, her satisfaction ebbed into pity, and then it transformed into anxiety. She felt like she was torturing her.

She'd seen Elphaba glance at her every now and then with a pained grimace on her face. To be frank, Elphaba's breathing had gone deep and it had became audible. Her lips were tightly sealed into a thin line, yet her eyes betrayed her; they were alarmingly close to tears.

Galinda couldn't even place the unbearable weight pressing down on he shoulders as she willed herself to sleep, watching from where she lay how Elphaba crammed her homework for the first time in her life, and barely even succeeding to do so without slamming her fist every now and then on her desk, muttering a long line of obscenities in ragged breaths.

Even at their classes together, Elphaba was not herself. She was unusually rigid and silent. Some of the teachers even found her lack of participation odd, and some of them had resorted to picking out random students to answer their question seeing as their usual star student wasn't letting out so much as a word.

But Galinda knew better than to tell anyone about the truth behind Elphaba's reticence. Between the two of them, they both knew she had the upper hand of the situation. If Elphaba confronts her, then it was going to be her loss; she will be giving herself away, trapped in an impasse in every corner. If Galinda spoke up, then Elphaba will have the advantage; she will be free to deny or twist the story.

So this was their game; waiting for the other girl to break their silence.

But so far, Galinda's winning. She had no reason to rush. She _controls _the game. She can lose by confronting her opponent, she can continue winning at every turn by waiting for Elphaba to make her move, and she can end it by running to Morrible and eliminate the other player completely.

Somehow, knowing that she held Elphaba's life in her hands didn't cheer her up. For the first time in her life, she didn't like besting Elphaba. It made her feel like a horrible monster.

* * *

><p>Elphaba knew about their "game" in her own way.<p>

And she knew that it wasn't in her favour. She was trapped no matter what she would do. And it was throwing her into insanity that only Galinda can manipulate the whole thing. She was unfamiliar with the sensation of helplessness, and it was maddening. It made her beyond furious towards her roommate. Before, it was mere annoyance. Now, her nights were plagued by images of all possible violence that can be inflicted on her.

Doctor Dillamond opted to stop the writing for a while to give Elphaba time to patch things up with her roommate, and it only agitated her further now that she had nothing to distract herself with.

She was ever so hostile with her roommate and everyone else. Hours spent confined in the same room with her was akin to a madhouse. Nearly a week passed with tense silences and continuous ignorance of each other's presence.

One weekend night found them in one of those rare occurrences when Elphaba would shatter the peace.

"_Damn it_, you _brat_. You left the faucet running again!" rang a vicious gripe.

"I was using the bathroom, you selfish beanstalk," Galinda retaliated angrily as she returned briskly to the bathroom, "I just took my facial cream."

"It's taking you half an hour already. Who the hell are you calling _selfish _now?"

"That's rich. You don't _usually _use the bathroom at this hour. Go back to your books, Miss Thropp."

"So, what, you own the damn bathroom and I can't use it whenever I want to?"

"Miss Elphaba, I'm just saying—"

"Maybe if you stop claiming things that aren't yours then perhaps we could tolerate each other, you little—"

"I haven't taken anything!"

"_Haven__'__t you_?"

Galinda suddenly found herself slammed against the bathroom door with a deafening _thud_, with Elphaba's grip tightly enclosed on her nightshirt.

They were returning glares, neither refusing to back down.

The realisation crept in slowly, both of them realising what the other one meant. Little slips of the tongue, but it was enough. The damage was too irreversible, too far gone to be repaired.

"You have something of mine," came Elphaba's low growl, gritting her teeth as she tightened her grip, giving Galinda no other place to run to. There was point in dancing around the problem. "Where is it?"

"I can't believe you were the one who's been writing it," Galinda breathed back angrily, "Figures. You got the whole school in this sick, military regime. I guess you really make a mess wherever you go. And you wonder why no one loves you."

She'd done it. And she felt sick as soon as the words were out of her lips.

She knew the words that were going to break Elphaba. Everyone knew who she was, being the shame of the Governor of Munchkinland and all. With this little information alone, it surprised Galinda that she had the capacity to finally use it against her. She'd always wanted a nasty comeback every time Elphaba had sarcastically outwitted her during all those months before, but now, she can't place herself to accept this victory.

And she could see her break, how Elphaba's heated fury dissipates into nothingness in a second. What struck painfully the most was that she could see Elphaba's eyes glazed over, that her lip trembled fleetingly.

Normally, this would have prompted Elphaba to retort with an equally vile comment. But she was already flooded in overwhelming emotions for so long. She had been tiredly dealing with the anxiety of Galinda telling Morrible of her secret, and she was terribly angry that she has no control over the situation. And with Galinda pitching in the lowly comment reminding her of her failures and shortcomings, everything about Elphaba's sanity collapsed.

As sudden as the assault was, Elphaba quickly wheeled about and gathered her school jacket and her bag.

"W-Where are you going?" Galinda asked quietly.

Elphaba didn't answer her, strutting towards the door, her face firmly contorted in pure rage.

"You're not allowed," Galinda tried, gathering the strength to prepare to apologise, "It's late. If they catch you—"

"Then there's no difference now, isn't there?" Elphaba said loudly, her voice slightly shaking, betraying the confidence she set up. "It's what you wanted, right? To see me like this? Don't stop now. You'll see me in chains soon enough."

As the door slammed shut, Galinda couldn't suppress herself anymore.

She threw herself on her bed and allowed herself to cry. What kind of person was she?

* * *

><p>Staying at Nessarose's room demanded softness in speaking, seeing as Morrible was only in the adjoining room. Talking wasn't much of a need, anyway. It was late, and neither of them really wanted the Headmistress to know that Elphaba's broken curfew.<p>

"Thanks, Nessa. For letting me stay, that is," Elphaba muttered quietly as she adjusted the pillow she was using. Well, borrowing, for that matter. "Just for a couple of nights until I cool down."

"Somehow, I expected you to end up like this in a matter of weeks living in the same room with her," Nessarose replied next to her. "I didn't expect that she'd finally do the trick after all this time. What did Galinda do, exactly?"

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to break me, Nessa," Elphaba answered quietly, staring up at the ceiling.

"… You've held out as long as you could."

Elphaba chuckled sardonically. "Oh, Nessa. I've never held out. I just had enough tonight. I'd been broken a long time ago."

Nessarose chose to remain silent after noticing a lone tear streak downwards on her sister's cheek in the moonlight.


End file.
